Background:目前尚不清楚仔细的历史记录是否有详细的质疑咳嗽特征在诊断上有用。
Objective:确定角色，时机或慢性咳嗽的并发症是否有助于确定其原因。
方法：A prospective, descriptive study of consecutive, unselected, immunocompetent patients referred to our university outpatient clinic because of chronic cough. All patients were evaluated by a previously published and validated systematic diagnostic protocol, a self-administered questionnaire, and by observing the character of involuntary and voluntary coughs. The final diagnosis of the cause of cough required fulfillment of pre pretreatment criteria plus having cough disappear or substantially improve as a complaint with specific therapy.
Results:88名患者符合纳入标准并进行了充分评估。平均±SD年龄为53.1±16岁（范围15-83岁），男性为24岁，女性为64岁，平均为6.6±9.8岁（范围为1个月至44岁）。在88例患者中，有86例（98％）建立了慢性咳嗽的原因。88人中有八十一（92％）因投诉而消失。咳嗽是由于39％的单一原因而导致的，有多个原因为59％。胃食管反流疾病，后滴注综合征和哮喘是慢性咳嗽最常见的3个原因，占诊断的90％。胃食管反流疾病，后滴综合征和哮喘再次被发现是慢性咳嗽的三种最常见原因，而与患者估计的每日痰液产生量无关。这3个疾病导致99.4％的具有以下特征的患者的慢性咳嗽：（1）不吸毒者；（2）未接受血管紧张素转换酶抑制剂药物；（3）正常或几乎正常且稳定的胸部X光片。 With respect to the spectrum and frequency of diagnoses and their interrelationships with the character, timing, and complications of cough, multiple stepwise linear regression analysis showed that none of the variability of the character, timing, or complications of cough could be explained by any specific diagnosis.
结论：经过精心处理的历史，详细询问了慢性咳嗽的性格，时机和并发症，这对于诊断咳嗽的原因不可能有用。在大多数病例中，可以确定并成功地通过特定疗法进行治疗。慢性咳嗽通常是由多个同时发生的原因引起的。鼻后滴注综合征，哮喘和胃食管反流疾病仍然是慢性咳嗽的三种最常见原因，并且有一种临床特征几乎总是预测它们在免疫能力的患者中的存在。(Arch Intern Med. 1996;156:997-1003)